Ok, so I am going to contradict myself ever so slightly here. Last week I made the point that Tony Pulis’ next challenge is to alter the style that Stoke play football, add a central midfielder who can pass the ball, a couple of genuine full-backs who can push on and a goal scoring striker. These would all definitely improve the team, and make Stoke a far harder opponent for the sides who come to the Britannia aiming to settle for a point, Stoke don’t like being the team who take the initiative and have this season found themselves losing at home to the likes of QPR, West Brom and Sunderland, while drawing with Wigan and Aston Villa.

But against the better sides, I am all for the robust style we employ every week. Quite simply it works. This season Stoke have managed a 0-0 at home to Chelsea, 1-1 with Manchester United, 1-1 with Manchester City, and have beaten Liverpool 1-0 and Tottenham 2-1. Arsenal is still to come, and the Potters always turn up against Arsenal.

After deservedly earning a point against Man City on Saturday Roberto Mancini lambasted Stoke’s style of play, and even sent assistant David Platt to do the post-match interview in case Roberto said things that might see him end up in trouble. The way I saw it Stoke played hard but fair, and with the night rolling in, in front of a packed Britannia Stadium which had as ever an electric atmosphere, it was a truly exciting match. The likes of Man City and Arsenal are fresh meat entering the den in an atmosphere like that, it creates a similar atmosphere you would have thought to the Rome Coliseum.

I can’t see how the game wasn’t exciting for the neutral, of who most would have been supporting Stoke. We saw one of the greatest goals you are ever likely to see; the equaliser wasn’t too bad either. We had pantomime villains in Tevez and Ballotelli, Crouch the hero, Huth and Shawcross the courageous soldiers who survived many periods of intense City pressure.

And Stoke played exciting football; it is a huge contributor to the electric atmosphere that surfaces most weeks in the Britannia, especially against the bigger teams. Is David Silva’s playing a 10 yard clever pass, actually more exciting than Robert Huth making a thundering last gasp slide tackle. Silva may be more effective, but Huth’s gets you on your feet. It stirs the emotions, and that in turn spurs the team forward. I would argue that every team should alter their style against the big teams, Everton play at 100mph and look at their success against Chelsea, Man City and Tottenham in recent weeks.

Some of the purists will think I am talking absolute rubbish (especially Arsenal fans), how can we enjoy this football, how can we bare to cheer when a crunching tackle, but the fact is that Stoke don’t care, we enjoy it and you hate it. This makes us enjoy it even more.

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